The beneficial effects of employing various floor cleaning tools in combination with wet vacuum systems of assorted styles and designs are well known. The prior art is replete with numerous examples of vacuum cleaner floor tools of various designs and which are useful for removing liquid and debris from assorted flooring surfaces. The Office's attention is specifically directed to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,655,255; 5,659,923; 6,266,892; 6,298,577; 6,421,875 and 6,981,338. The teachings of the prior art U.S. Patents are incorporated by reference herein. While these various prior art vacuum cleaner floor tools have operated with varying degrees of success, various shortcomings attendant with the prior art designs have detracted from their usefulness. For example, and referring more specifically to U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,923 to Coombs, this invention relates to a floor cleaning tool which does not utilize a rotating beater bar brush, but instead simply applies vacuum and mild agitation to the carpet pile to clean the carpet. It is evident from a study of the drawings of that patent, and more specifically to FIG. 4, that the design as proposed in the Coombs reference does not provide a means by which the vacuum of the floor cleaning tool can be maximized in view of the orientation of the air passageway coupling the floor cleaning tool with a vacuum conduit. In this regard, and as seen in FIG. 4, the very sharp angles provided in the tool, and more specifically the vacuum chamber housing decreases the cleaning efficiency of same. Moreover, the design as provided for in U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,923 is generally considered difficult to service. For example, it is quite difficult to remove and service the glides 18 and 22, respectively, and which ride in contact with the surface which is being cleaned.
Additionally, many of the prior art references employ a tapered shape which is effective to penetrate, at least in part, to some degree, a carpet surface upon which it is employed. This type of a design is quite unsatisfactory inasmuch as friction is increased, thereby causing undue wear on the carpet, and increasing the amount of physical labor required to move such a device across a flooring surface.
A floor cleaning tool which avoids the shortcomings attendant with the prior art practices and methodology utilized heretofore is the subject matter of the present application.